4 64 
492 
opy 1 



THE 



Mes -of- Men, 



AND 



Disadvantages of Women, 



BY 



RUSSEL AVERILL, 

BOSTON, MASS. 
1891. 



♦ • • * » 



[Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1891, by 
RUSSEL AVERILL, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at 
Washington, D. C.J 



♦ * • » ♦ 



HARWICH, MASS.: 

B. F. BEE, JR., STEAM JOB PRINTER. 
1891. 



THE 



Dalies ftp- Men, 



AND 



Disadvantages of Women, 



— BY- 



RUSSEL AVERILL, 

BOSTON, MASS. 
1891. 



♦ * • • ♦ 



+**?*? £J 



[Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1891, by 
RUSSEL AVERILL, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at 
Washington, D. C] 



♦ > ♦* ♦ 



HARWICH, MASS.: 

B. F. BEE, JR., STEAM JOB PRINTER. 
1891. 



1 .-A* 1 



PREFACE. 



The subjects here treated of take quite a wide 
range, but all are considered important for peo- 
ple to know, if they do not already. Of course in a 
work of this size, none of the topics could be 
treated at length, but if it induces people to ex- 
amine and think of matters brought to their no- 
tice , it may be productive of good. 

If women will try to benefit themselves, it would 
be well to bring this pamphlet to the notice of all, 
both women and men, as it may set people to 
thinking and acting, and right action in respect 
to things therein treated upon, will not only ben- 
efit women, but men as well. 

It is hoped that men will take what is said in 
the last part of this pamphlet in regard to their 
conduct to women, in a kindly spirit, and if any 
do not live up to the requirements mentioned, 



that they will see the selfishness of the conduct 
mentioned, and govern themselves in accordance 
with the happiness and welfare of their wives, 
rather than selfishly to gratify their own passions. 
Hoping that no one will indulge in the idea 
that what is treated of in this pamphlet is of no 
account, but will read and reflect upon it before 
condemning it, and not think it cannot be true, 
because it may not agree with his or her opinions, 
which all should be willing to modify on mature 
reflection. 

All that is treated of in this pamphlet, and 
much more that is not touched upon, it seems 
to me, that men and women should understand 
if they want to be free and independent, and 
transmit these blessings to their children. It is 
as much for the s;ood of women that aood govern- 
ment should prevail, as it is for the men, and it 
would be a oreat blessing to men, if they would 
accord to women all rights which are justly their 
due, which it is hoped many do. 

I have quoted from the work by F. O. Willey : 
' 'Whither Are We Drifting as a Nation and The 
New Era in liepublican Government," Geo. C. 
Hackstafl\ Publisher, St Louis, Missouri. 



The Duties of Men and Disadvantages of Women. 



In discussing the present condition of the 
world, it is well to see what the condition of man- 
kind was in the remote past, and it is found that 
it was not very much higher than the brute cre- 
ation, and that it has come up to its present con- 
dition, step by step, through a long stretch of 
time, and judging by the past, it is natural to 
suppose that in the future, it will continue to in- 
crease, intellectually and morally, and conse- 
quently will envolve and require, better social 
and economic conditions, and that its present 
state of growth, or evolution, is not the highest 
to which it will attain, but is only a temporary 
condition through which it is passing to some- 
thing higher and better. 

The present economic and competitive system 
should be replaced by conditions wherein all 
would receive that which of right belongs to them, 
and not have a few manage to come into possession 
of that for which they have given no just compen- 
sation. Not all men have yet grown strong 
enough in the moral sentiments of justice and 



6 



benevolence, to willingly accord to others what 
rightfully belongs to them, but seek to obtain 
what they have earned by various devices, among 
which the banking system of the country figures 
conspicuously, and the better to carry out their 
schemes to rob the people, the monej^ power, or 
capitalists, have subsidized the metropolitan press 
and control the legislation of the country, to a 
large extent, in their own interest. 

What a vast power the banks exert with the 
privilege which have been given them. How 
long can liberty endure when the tendency of 
legislation is to concentrate wealth in the hands 
of a few. 

The following from a circular issued by the 
National Banking Association, and sent to every 
national bank in the United States, explains 
itself and throws light on some other subjects, 
which undoubtedly seem dark and obscure to 
many who have not studied the finance question. 



Dear Sir : It is advisable to do all in your 
power to sustain such daily and weekly news- 
papers, especially the agricultural and religious 
press, as will oppose the issuing of greenback 
paper money and that you also withhold patronage 



or favors from all applicants, who are not willing to 
oppose the government issue of money. Let the 
government issue the coin (only two and a half 
per cent, of the circulation) and the banks issue 
the paper money of the country, for then we can 
better protect each other. To repeal the law 7 
creating national banks, or to restore to circula- 
tion the government issue of money, w T ill be to 
provide the people with money, and will there- 
fore seriously effect your individual profits as 
bankers and lenders. See your member of Con- 
gress at once, and engage him to support our in- 
terest, that we may control legislation. 



"Here is the key to the situation. The lead- 
ing papers are rich and are therefore directly in- 
terested in dear money and cheap commodities, 
and the minor newspapers are as a rule taken care 
of acccordin^ to the advice sdven in the circular 
just -quoted. And then the individual profits of 
bankers and lenders would be seriously affected 
should the government issue money instead of 
the banks and this the bankers understand as is 
seen by the language of the circular. Is it a 
wonder then that bankers and lenders oppose the 
government issue of money." Why should the 



8 



government grant such privileges to banks — the 
power to fix the value of things as by contracting 
the volume of the currency, they can lower the 
price of land, commodities and wages, and thus 
reduce the people to poverty, while the banks 
profit by being able to buy land and other things, 
cheaper, because their value is reduced for a time, 
to be raised when it comes into possession of the 
capitalists ; and such periodical crises probably 
are brought about intentionally by the banks, to 
take from the laboring community their hard 
earnings, so that those who own and con- 
trol the banks can live in luxury and ease. 
The government should issue the money, and 
make it a legal tender, and it always would be 
sate, and the privilege of the few to live at the 
expense of the many would be taken away, as 
far as the banks were concerned. 

According to Warwick Martin, if the green- 
backs had been made a legal tender for all debts 
due the nation, the national debt would have been 
less by at least one billion or one thousand mill- 
ions of dollars. 

"If the farmer could have such privileges as 
the national banks have, he could mortgage his 
ten thousand dollar farm to the government 
for nine thousand dollars, and loan that money to 



9 



the people at from 6 to 24 per cent, and all he 
would need to pay the government would be a 
tax of one per cent, on the amount loaned. Then 
the government would also pay him six per cent, 
interest on his whole farm, as it does the banker 
on his bonds, and in addition to all this the 
government would exempt his farm from taxation, 
national, state and municipal." 

"Would not that be a great privilege for the 
farmer? That is just such a privilege as the 
banks have. Now, why, in the name of common 
sense do you permit it ? Why do you permit 
labor to be robbed in that way? Why do you 
allow corporations to absorb the wealth of the 
nation, at such a fearful rate? Do you not see 
that such a system is fatal to liberty ? You can 
prevent it by intelligent voting." 

It probably is not generally known that Ben- 
jamin Franklin originated the theory of govern- 
ment money in this country, and I would reccom- 
mend all to read his essay on money, in his biog- 
raphy written by himself, or it will be found in a 
work by F. O. Willey, entitled, "Whither are 
We Drifting as a Nation, and The New Era in 
Republican Government." Geo. C. Hackstaff, 
Publisher, St. Louis, Mo., which work contains 
a vast amount of information in regard to bank- 



10 



ing, railroads and various schemes to defraud the 
people of their earnings, which information all 
ought to know if they wish to preserve their lib- 
erties, and not be reduced to the condition of 
Ireland. People may think this is sounding a 
needless alarm, but can they not see by looking 
around them the tendency of things ; the vast 
majority of people becoming poorer every day, 
and a few growing enormously rich by absorb- 
ing the earnings of the laborers, for wealth comes 
from labor, and the capitalists manage to scoop 
in what others have earned by hard labor, and 
thus live in idleness and luxury themselves, 
while those who have earned the wealth, are 
robbed of it and suffer in consequence of this 
state of things, and are looked upon as inferior 
by those who have unjustly taken from them 
their hard earnings. 

But to return to Dr. Franklin. Was Frank- 
lin a visionary, "a crazy greenbacker" originating 
a wild money scheme ; or was it a scheme that 
worked well in Pennsylvania before the Revolu- 
tionary War? Let history tell. Why do the 
papers of the country keep the people ignorant of 
Franklin's money system which worked so well, 
in Pennsylvania before the Revolutionary War ? 



11 



The reason is not far to seek : It would over- 
throw their talk about greenbacks. 

Do not be laughed or jeered out of your 
opinions by those who are selfishly interested in 
maintaining the present economic, social and com- 
petitive state of things. Franklin's scheme, 
which was put in practice in Pennsylvania, be- 
fore the Revolutionary War, was similar to the 
greenback money, and his scheme worked well, 
for a long time. 

Gillett's comments: "For fifty years the 
paper-money system or the issue by the colonial 
government of legal tender 'proclamation money,' 
as it was at first called, and afterward 're- 
solve money,' was continued with marvelous 
results. This money bore no promise of re- 
demption in coin, but a promise to receive it for 
all dues. It never was redeemed in coin. It 
rested upon the credit of the tax-payers and 
wealth producers of Pennsylvania, and was loaned 
to the extent of the demand, upon land and plate 
— not to bankers, not to corporations in immense 
sums, but to farmers and business men, in sums 
not exceeding 100 pounds.' " 

Phillips' Paper Currency, a book published in 
1765, opposed to paper money, says on page 36 : 



12 



' 'No great fluctuations are recorded in this 
province (Perm)." The money was so good it 
circulated in neighboring provinces as at home. 
The volume was governed by the necessities of 
individuals and of the public, and was always 
sustained in value by taxation." 

'"It was universally accepted and regarded 
as an axiom by our colonial fathers, that it was 
not only the right, but the duty of the govern- 
ment to provide the people with a sufficient sup- 
ply of money for the wants of trade." 

Dr. Franklin «;ave this account in his autobios;- 
raphy of the introduction of his system in Penn- 
sylvania : "About this time (1723) there was a 
cry among the people for more paper money, 
only £15,000 being extant in the province and 
soon to be sunk. The wealthly inhabitants op- 
posed any addition, being against all paper cur- 
rency. I w T as on the side of an addition, being 
persuaded that the first small sum, struck in 1722 
had done much good by increasing the trade, 
employment and number of inhabitants in the 
province." 

The reason the wealthy opposed any addition, 
was probably because by keeping money scarce 
they could get more interest, and take advantage 
in various other ways. 



13 



There is a great deal said about honest money. 
The banks are not required by law to hold but 
five per cent, of their circulation, and they could 
not redeem one hundred dollars with five, and 
you can not get greenbacks redeemed except you 
have fifty dollars, and then have to go to 
New York to °et it. 

The Honest Money League have ridiculed the 
idea of that which would be honest money, and 
tried to make people believe that the present sys- 
tem, by which they can fleece the community 
outrageously is an honest one. The gold eagles 
are only nine-tenths gold, and our standard sil- 
ver dollars are worth considerable less, as bullion, 
than the gold dollar. "How is that for the Honest 
Money League's dollar? The pretense that they 
want to secure an honest money for the people, 
is a sham and a fraud, as the above analysis 
shows. The control of the currency is what they 
are after." Heath quotes from E. P. Elder as 
follows: "Money is no more a standard of 
value of the things exchanged, than is any other 
commodity." 

Adam Smith, the very celebrated writer on 
political economy, in speaking of the precious 
metals says : "Constantly varying in their own 
value, they can never be made an accurate meas- 



14 



ure of the value of other commodities. "Of 
course gold can be made a standard of payment, 
the same as paper or nickel, but not a standard 
of value." 

Why were the greenbacks depreciated ? John 
Sherman said: "To create a market for the 
bonds. 

"The exception clause lowered the value of the 
greenback and raised the price of gold ; it 
changed their relative value, until the difference 
at one time was $1.85. Then the capitalist 
could purchase two hundred and eighty-five dol- 
lars in greenbacks with one hundred dollars in 
gold, and the government would receive his 
greenbacks at par for bonds, drawing six per 
cent, gold interest. That would give him one 
hundred and eighty-five dollars in bonds for one 
hundred dollars in gold, and those bonds would 
be drawing just as much gold interest as though 
they cost their face value in gold. In that way 
he increased his interest income from 6 to 17 1-10 
per cent. Thus it would be seen that, as a result 
of the depreciation of the greenback, he draws 
17 1-10 per cent, interest on his one hundred dol- 
lar gold investment, whereas, if the greenback 
had been at par he could have drawn only six 
per cent." 



15 



What a scheme for cheating the people out of 
their earnings. The capitalistic press, and dema- 
gogues, have tried to make the people believe 
that the premium on gold was on account of an 
over-issue of greenbacks, but it is quite evident 
that the money power has been deceiving the 
people in regard to that matter. 

A leading New York Journal said: "The 
time is near when they — the banks — will feel 
themselves compelled to act strongly. Mean- 
while a very good thing has been done. The 
machinery is now furnished by which, in 
in any emergency, the financial corporations of 
the East can act together on a single days notice, 
with such power that no act of Congress can 
overcome or resist their decision." People of 
America do you hear that? Is it not time that 
you aroused yourselves, and placed yourselves 
above the banking corporations, and all other in- 
stitutions that can deprive you of your just rights ? 
Again 1 say thatj^ou, or the government, should 
issue greenbacks or something similar and make 
them a legal tender, and do away with private 
banking corporations. 

But a little has been said in regard to bank- 
ing that might be told, but I will pass to the rail- 
roads of the country, which are a great con- 



16 



venience, but they have been granted privi- 
leges, and powers which they are using for their 
own aggrandizement, and are exerting an influ- 
ence in shaping the laws that is dangerous to the 
liberties of the people. 

They have secured more land than is contained 
in a dozen states, to be withheld from the people 
except at the price they see fit to charge them for 
it, which price there can be no good reason to 
suppose will be a cheap and just one, and they 
can ruin any business that requires transportation 
of commodities, by the charges they make for 
carrying freight, a privilege and authority that 
never should have been granted to private cor- 
porations, but should have been kept in control 
of the government — which is the people — to be 
operated for their benefit, at cost, which would 
make travel and transportation much cheaper 
than at present. 

The coal mines of the country ought not to be 
monopolized by a few, and the land should not 
be grasped in immense quantities by any one. 
There is a strong probability that the very air 
we breath would be fenced in by some, if they 
had the power to do it, and we would have to 
pay for inhaling this life sustaining element. 
^In 1874, the Senate of the United States, in 



17 



response to a general demand, appointed a special 
committee on transportation, composed of Wm, 
Windom of Minnesota ; John Sherman of Ohio ; 
Roscoe Conkling of New York ; H. G. Davis of 
West Virginia ; T. M. Norwood of Georgia ; J. 
W. Johnson of Virginia; John H. Mitchell of 
Oregon ; and S. B. Conover of Florida. The com- 
mittee occupied the entire summer of 1874 in 
making an exhaustive examination of the sub- 
ject, and in their report we find the following : 
"In the matter of taxation, there are to-day four 
men, representing the four great trunk lines be- 
tween Chicago and New York, who possess, and 
who not unfrequently exercise powers which the 
Congress of the United States would not venture 
to exert. They may at any time, and for any 
reason satisfactory to themselves, by a single 
stroke of the pen, reduce the value of property 
in this country by hundreds of millions of dol- 
lars. 

An additional charge of five cents per bushel, 
on the transportation of cereals, would have been 
equivalent to a tax of forty-five millions of dol- 
lars on the crop of 1873. No Congress would 
dare to exercise so vast a power except upon a 
necessity of the most imperative nature, and yet 
these gentlemen exercise it whenever it suits their 



18 



supreme will and pleasure, without explanation 
or apology. With the rapid and inevitable prog- 
ress of combination and consolidation, these co- 
lossal organizations are daily becoming stronger 
and more imperious. 

The day is not distant, if it has not already 
arrived, when it will be the duty "of the states- 
man to inquire whether there is less danger in 
leaving the property and industrial interests of 
the people thus wholly at the mercy of a few 
men, who recognize no responsibility but to their 
stockholders, and no principle of action but per- 
sonal and corporate aggrandizement, than in adding 
somewhat to the power and patronage of a govern- 
ment directly responsible to the people, and en- 
tirelv under their control." 

Report of United States Senate Committee on 
Transportation Routes, page 158 ; The rail- 

roads can pay enormous fees for professional 
services, as transportation and travel pay them 
extravagantly for accommodating the public. 
^ vRailroad men, who have accumulated within a 
few years amounts ranging from one to five 
millions, are too numerous to mention, as are those 
also, in branches of trade depending upon, and 
closely identified with railroad transportation — 
shippers who, through the favor of railroad man- 



19 



agers. have been enabled to outstrip or break down 
all competition. 

These are found in every branch of trade, hut 
in none, perhaps, are they so prominent as in 
the petroleum business. If a true history of the 
Standard Oil Company could be written it would 
read more like a romance of the Middle Ages 
than a statement of commercial facts possible in 
the nineteenth century. This is the organization 
to which the Hepburn committee alludes as this 
mysterious organization, whose business and tran- 
sactions are of such a character that its members 
decline giving a history or description of it lest 
their testimony be used to convict them of crime" 

And thus are thev enabled to enslave the 
people. The Standard Oil Company is enabled, 
through its riches thus acquired, to purchase large 
tracts of land for the purpose of raising wheat on 
a large scale, which means more of the tenant 
system. The railroad companies threatened even 
the supreme court through their counsel and the 
associated press, which rs subsidized by the rich, 
suppressed the same . Secretary Windom said : 
k 'The capitalists have bought, and are buying 
largely, the Associated Press, and are control- 
lino; all the avenues of intelligence." F. O. 
Willey says in his book: "^J controlling the 



20 



avenues of intelligence, the capitalist holds the 
confidence of the heads of families with one hand, 
as it were, while he rifles their pockets with the 
other. He instills wrong 1 ideas and dangerous 
prejudices into their minds, and they in turn 
hand them over to their children, and each suc- 
ceeding generation comes upon the stage, inno- 
cently kissing the hand that smites them, while 
every year adds immensely to the abundance of 
the rich, and every day poverty becomes more 
widespread and distressing." Is such a press fit 
to be the source of information for a free people ? 

I fear the people are not aware of the extent to 
which the railroad corporations are controlling 
the legislation of the country, and of what vast 
sums they expend for that purpose, and that they 
oppose investigation, and that presidents of rail- 
roads have denied abuses which were afterwards 
proved to exist. 

These people thus grown rich would gladly 
welcome a monarchy, and a privileged class, as 
they think that they are better than the great 
mass of mankind. 

Whitelaw Bead in the New York Tribune used 
substantially these words: "It is astonishing, 
yea, startling, the extent to which the faith pre- 



21 



vails, in the money circles in New York, that we 
ouoht to have a monarchy." 

Hear what Lincoln says in his message to Con- 
gress in 1861 : "Monarchy is sometimes hinted 
at as a possible refuge from the power of the 
people. In my present position I would be 
scarcely justified were I to omit exercising a 
warning voice against returning despotism. There 
is one point to which 1 ask attention ; it is the 
effort to place capital on an equal footing with, 
if not above, labor in the structure of the govern- 
ment. I bid the laboring people beware of sur- 
rendering a power which they already possess, 
and which, when surrendered, will surely be 
used to close the door of advancement to such as 
they, and fix new disabilities and burdens upon 
them till all of liberty shall be lost." 

The New York Times— Aug. 12th, 1877— 
thinks it would be a good thing to have a class 
of land owners on one hand and tenant farmers 
on the other, similar to what exists in Europe, 
and in joy says : "And. then will begin a new 
era in agriculture, and one that seems to be very 
desirable." Very desirable ! ! Surely not to the 
tenant farmers, but to the wealthy land owners. 

Here is an extract from the New York World. 
"The American laborer must make up his mind 



22 



henceforth not to be so much better off than the 
European laborer. Men must be content to work 
for less wages. In this way the working man 
will be nearer to that station in life to which it 
has pleased God to call him." 

How do you people of America relish the idea 
of being; about the same as slaves ? It is time 
you spoke in thunder tones through the ballot 
box and by your votes checked the tendency to 
such a state of things, through the monopoly by 
capitalists of the land, and by obtaining special 
privileges by corporate monopolies. 

But the people are slow to believe that the 
leading newspapers, most of them, are controlled 
by the rich, and color things to suit the capital- 
ists, and also that the present two great political 
parties are largely controlled by the same class, 
but if they are too apathetic they will soon be 
in a condition still worse than the present one, 
where they cannot regain the rights which they 
formerly possessed, except through revolution 
and bloodshed ; and the attaining of yet higher 
conditions than any ever yet reached be checked, 
or retarded, perhaps for a long time, but not per- 
manently, for I believe in continual evolvement, 
higher and yet higher, and I think the time is 



23 



about ripe for something better than the present 
selfish competitive system. 

I think it time for the government to have con- 
trol of the railroads, telegraphs and many other 
things, and operate them for the benefit of the 
people, instead of individuals owning and con- 
trolling them for their own private gain. People 
may profess to be governed by a sense of justice, 
but so long as the present banking, railroad, 
telegraphic, and various other systems prevail, 
the people will be robbed of a very large share of 
their earnings. 

I see no way out of the present condition of 
things except by the people, or government, 
controlling these things, and managing them for 
the «;ood of all, and not allow individuals to con- 
trol things for private gain , and reap enormous 
profits out of the earnings of the people, for 
wealth comes from labor. How would any one 
be enabled to accumulate millions, except through 
the earnings of the people, and if you the people, 
continue to allow this state of things, you will be 
yourselves to blame. You should investigate 
these things, the tariff, and every thing that effects 
the well being of the people, if you wish to be 
free. 



24: 



And in regard to women : They should have 
a voice in making the laws by which they are 
governed. Their duties and employments, es- 
pecially in the right training of children — it seems 
to me — require as great an amount of intelligence 
as do man's duties and employments. Their 
aptness in some directions is superior to man's 
and he may excel in other ways, so that on the 
whole they are equal, and should have equal 
privileges. Their cares and responsibilities, are 
as great if not greater than man's. If men want 
justice between man and man, they should be 
willing to concede it to women in all respects. 
Why should she be required to yield to his lust 
at all times, even when undesirable and repug- 
nant to her. If men would place themselves in 
woman's condition, in imagination, and see the 
enormity of the wrong done to her in this matter, 
it seems as though they would respect the sacred- 
ness of her person and feelings. I think that 
thousands have had their lives shortened by being 
induced to yield to things so contrary to their 
nature as to submit at all times to man's desires 
in this respect. 

The effects upon those conceived in such con- 
ditions are lamentable. After being ushered 
into the w r orld — perhaps having a murderous 



25 



disposition — it cannot be supposed to have as 
amiable a disposition as one born through con- 
ditions of love on both sides. The deformities 
of character and disposition resulting from such 

conditions are deplorable. 

If a man withholds money or any thing that 

woman has a right to her share of — and of course 
she feels that she has that claim — the effect on 
the unborn is liable to make it of a thievish dis- 
position, and the blame is mostly with man, on 
account of his inconsiderateness in regard to what 
is due woman as to these things. At such times 
especially, if more at one time than another, 
woman should be surrounded by an atmosphere 
of affection, congeniality and justice. 

To bring about a desirable condition of society, 
men and women should study the laws of health in 
regard to food, drink, proper ventilation, both 
night and day, and dress in a healthy manner, so 
that they will be robust and cheerful and thus 

benefit themselves and the world. 

It is a duty all owe to society, to live in such 

a way that they can maintain a cheerful and 
pleasant attitude with the world, and thus to bless 
all, both community and themselves, as bless- 
ings rendered to others would be returned per- 
haps a hundred fold, as the spirit of good-will 
is communicated from one to another. 



